by Jeff Stepper

Created on: February 23, 2007   Last Updated: April 29, 2007

The Iraq War
We are stuck in a war in Iraq that we entered for the wrong reasons, based on assumptions that were not true. This war is creating more terrorists, raising anti-American sentiments, and costing billions of dollars a month. This war has become a quagmire for our troops serving there. We are no longer fighting against insurgents, but rather we are fighting in the midst of a civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites, and we are caught in the middle, being shot at from both sides. To date, over 3000 American soldiers have been killed in this war, 105 just in the month of October, making it the fourth bloodiest month since the war began.

Our nation was told that the reasons for a preemptive attack on Iraq were that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and that he had ties with al-Qa'ida, both of which turned out to not be true. Our reasons for staying there are that if we don't fight the terrorists in Iraq, we will be fighting them here in America. Some would say that by waging this war on global terrorism we are making our country safer and preventing another 9/11-type event. Are we safer now than we were before 9/11? The National Intelligence Estimate report dated April 2006 says, "A large body of all-source reporting indicates that activists identifying themselves as jihadists . . . are increasing in both number and geographic dispersion. Anti-American and anti-globalization sentiment is on the rise and fueling other radical ideologies." The report went on to say, "The Iraq conflict has become the "cause celebre" for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement." In other words, our actions in Iraq are causing instability in the area and creating more terrorists rather than decreasing their numbers. More terrorists mean there are more chances to attack us here in the homeland. Therefore, the war makes it more likely, not less likely, that we will experience terrorism in the U.S.
Our actions in Iraq are fueling anti-American sentiments, not just in the region around Iraq, but in the whole world. The current administration talks about "spreading democracy." Isn't that what Russia was doing during the cold war, just a different ideology? Since we fought so hard against what Russia was doing, I think it would be safe to assume that other nations that do not share our ideology would do the same to us. It isn't about the terrorists attacking us because

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